Red Crab

[loachylover]

i made a big mistake today went to my local LFS and fell in love with a tiny little red crab and bought him straight away(only asked the LFS if they would be fine in a community tank with small fish he said they would be fine)

Could anyone shed any light on these little creatures and wether or not there is going to be a war breaking out in my peaceful tank

Any help would be very greatful

 

[smb]

I don't know anything about crabs so I did a search for you.

Let me know if this isn't the crab you are talking about and I'll try again.

I have no idea if this info on the website is valid or not so take that into account if anything might be incorrect.

Red Claw Crab

 

[snotirl]

Well i heard this about those crabs and it is that in the night they climb up onto the pump or plants and jump of and if they land on a fish they will kill it!

 

[loachylover]

Thanks smb & snotirl i found the site you have a link to and the little guy is a red calw crab i have been watching him for hours and i have to say apart from my loach's he is the most interseting creature in my tank, my large male 3 spot gourami gave him an inspection with his feelers and he went straight inot defence mode with his two claws out, he never hurt the gourami but showed he wasn't food it was very funny!!

 

[loachylover]

aint got a heater to walk up as my heater is built into my internal filter, which is is four inches from the ground, i have also made sure my condensation tray has no gaps just incase


Thanks again, i feel more confident that i made the right choice in buying him

 

[loachylover]

snotirl, this little crab is s**t scared of a "neon" when it goes close to it, so i dont think it is a nocturnal predator, but i will do a head count in the morning just incase!!!

 

[CFC]

We bought 5 redclaw crabs once when our then 4 year old son fell in love with them, what harm can it do we thought? We placed them in a 10g with a pair of cockatoo cichlids which we had seperated from the community tank as they were geting beaten on everytime they tried to defend their eggs (unsuccessfully). Overnight the female had been eaten and the male had most of his tail removed . We kept them for a few months more after that (with no fish) in which time one was killed in a fight and another escaped from the tank and was found dried up in our sons bedroom. We returned the remaining 3 to the lfs in the end as our son lost interest in them and the tank could be better used as a quarentine/hospital tank.

 

[snotirl]

he must be a scared friendly red crab 8)

 

[elgecko]

Here's my page on the Red Claw Crabs. It covers what I've found out while keeping them. http/www.geocities.com/elgecko1989/crab.html

 

[cory]

Here's my page on the Red Claw Crabs. It covers what I've found out while keeping them. http/www.geocities.com/elgecko1989/crab.html

Since you've had experience keeping these particular crabs, how many would you think that I could keep, in a 30 gallon tall, with three seperate areas protruding from the water. Plus, there'll be floating plants(fake) for them to crawl up onto, providing even more crawl space above the water. I ask, because I noticed that you could only successfully keep two, in your 10 gallon, with one piece of driftwood as the crawl space.

 

[SpEeDhOrN]

i had 3 crabs and they all tried escaping many times but in the end they all died as i didnt know what to feed them. i tried everything the pet shop owner said and that didnt help so dont get ur hopes up

 

[Curtiss]

I've kept red claw crabs on and off for the last 10 years. I quickly discovered when I first got one that they are indeed great escape artists. Up the plant, up the heater and out of the tank.

I added 2 to my 30 gallon tall tank about 2 weeks ago. They have no problem crawling up a plant and then grabbing onto the filter pickup and climbing to the top of the tank...where they can't get out. The inlets around the pickup are very tightly cut...they can stick a claw partially out, but that's about it.

I've found them to be reasonably hardy and very entertaining. I was a little worried adding them to my tank with my peacock eel (about 3 inches) but they don't bother him at all. They like to harrass my algae eater but he's too quick for them. Mine hang out in some caves in one of my decorations and are most active in the late evenings...feeding time. I drop a few tablets in and as soon as they see one of my angels starting to pick at them they run out, waving their claws and snatch one up each and take it back to their respective caves. I feed them every other day which appears to be plenty.

I recently added an African butterfly fish to my tank which I feed meal worms. Had one sink to the bottom before the African could get to it and discovered the crabs would eat that too...or at least he grabbed it and took it away. Didn't see him actually eat it.

The water in my tank is not brackish, has a ph of ~7.2 and a temp of 76F and they seem to be doing fine after a couple of weeks. I suspect these guys probably have a pretty large tolerance to water conditions.

-Curtiss

 

[cory]

Thanks for the information Curtiss. I really like hearing various fish keepers experiences with the fish THAT I AM INTERESTED in keeping. Fish that I am not interested in, meh, not so much.


I've got this really great little 30 gallon aquarium and stand sitting unused, in a closet.... And these red crabs might be just the inhabitants that I'm looking for.

 

[Feline]

Just don't be alarmed when u saw there's an extra crab sitting in ur tank suddenly one day

 

[elgecko]

cory,

What I believe I recall when I did all my research, was keep no more then 2 per 10 gallons. They can have fights among thereselves.